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Web analytics can provide an insight into the performance of a website. Many Web hosting packages include Web analytics tools. Free services such as Google Analytics, which can be used in any site, are also popular. Companies use Web analytics to find out information about their visitors, including how they interact with the pages in a site. The information gleaned from analytics can help to inform future decisions regarding the content and marketing of Internet and other company services.

Performance Measurement

The primary purpose of a Web analytics system to measure the performance of a site. Within a Web analytics interface, such as the Google Analytics service, company managers can see data about how many visits a site has had, how many visits the individual pages have had and additional information about these visits including how long users spent on each page. Analytics also indicates traffic sources, so you can see at a glance how users are reaching your site. In most cases, people visit websites not by typing the Web address into their browser but by following a link. Such links can be on other websites or on search engine results pages. By seeing where site users are coming from, company staff can gain a sense of how best to focus marketing efforts.

Visitor Data

The visitor data within analytics reports can help to build up a picture of who site visitors are. Most analytics systems can tell you geographical information about where visitors are accessing your site from. Since the visitors can potentially be anywhere in the world, this gives a company potentially valuable information, particularly if the business is international. You can also find out what portion of website visitors are new as opposed to returning. Technology companies can access information about what operating systems and Web browsers visitors are on, which can be useful particularly where software businesses are concerned.

Marketing Optimization

Many companies with products or services that are available over the Internet use online marketing. This includes adverts from companies such as Google through the AdWords and AdSense programs. If a company is investing part of their marketing budget in online ads, they will typically want to calculate the return on this investment. By using systems such as Google Analytics, you can see which of your online advertising efforts are successfully sending traffic to your sites as well as whether these users are then going on to make purchases in the case of e-commerce sites. This data can then be fed into future decisions about online marketing.

Content Optimization

Company Web properties such as sites and blogs can serve multiple purposes. Some pages on a site may be designed to process transactions, while others may have an informative aim. With analytics, you can see how well a page is performing in relation to its purpose. For example, if you have an informational blog but your visitors are not spending long enough on the pages to be reading the content fully, you may need to look at the quality of this content and consider improving it.

About the Author

Sue Smith started writing in 2000. She has produced tutorials for companies including Apex Computer Training Software and articles on computing topics for various websites. Smith has a Master of Arts in English language and literature, as well as a Master of Science in information technology, both from the University of Glasgow.